Just a few years ago golf courses were considered an environmental abomination, wasting precious water, spewing runoff contaminated with fertilizers and insecticides, and replacing wild meadows and woodlands with monotonous manicured landscapes to serve the country club set.

This fall, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear Stop the Beach Renourishment v. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, a case that raises the question of when, if ever, a judicial decision constitutes a taking of private property.

In the early days of the ivory trade ban in the 1980s, TIME magazine showed a picture of Kenyan government officials burning tons of ivory to demonstrate their commitment to the ban as a way of stopping elephant poaching.